Girdle pad



Patented pr. 7, 19573 UNITED STATES PATENT "OFFICE GIRDLE PAD g' victorMilstein, New York, N,- Y. C Application Octoberv 14, 1949, Serial No.121,255

The present invention relates to attachments for wearing apparel, andmore particularly, to a device for preventing the end of a rib in agarment from pressing into the body of the wearerv including an elementfor attaching a protective pad to the garment;L

Garments, such as girdles andthe like wornV by reason of the gureconforming shape of thegarment The PreSSfng, ,O f'the Qndspfrthe Staysinto the body is very annoying and in cases where the garment vis wornfor a long period without removal, the skinY is irritated', 'chafed, orbruised. While in most garments some attempt is made to protectv thebody ofthe wearer by enclosing or lightly padding'theendsofthe ribs,this has not been found to be suicient.

-Accordingly, an object'fof the present invention is to provide a:simple;practica1 and inexpensive device for overcoming the foregoingdiiiculties by preventing the ribs in the garment from pressing into thebody of the wearer.

Another object is to provide a device of the foregoing character whichis readily positioned on the garment and removed therefrom but iseffectively retained on the garment against accidental removal.

A further object is to provide an element which can be produced at aVery low cost and is very effective in attaching the device to thegarment.

Other and further objects will be obvious upon an understanding of theillustrative embodiment about to be described, or will be indicated inthe appended claims, and various advantages not referred to herein willoccur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention inpractice.

lIn accordance with the invention, the foregoing objects areaccomplished by providing a device of the character indicated hereinwhich comprises a pad, and an element secured to the pad having means,such as hook portions, for supporting the pad on the garment andpositioning the pad between the end of the rib of the garment and thebody of the wearer. In an emn bodiment of the invention about to bedescribed, the element is formed with means, such as teeth, for grippingthe garment to prevent the supporting means from being renderedineffective.

A preferred embodiment of the invention has been chosen for purposes ofillustration and detionedbetween the upperend of a rib and the body ofthe wearer of the garment.` y

. Figure 2 is an enlarged front elevational view of the device shown inFigurel. A

p Figure 3 -is an enlarged perspective View of the element forattachingthe device to the garment.

Figure 4 isa sectional viewtaken along the line 44-4 vin Figure 2 butshowing the device attached tothe garment as illustrated in Figure 1.

AReferring to the drawing in detail and more particularlytoFigure 1thereof, there is shown af garment It, vsuch `,as a girdle having alengthwise extending rib Il therein, the upper end of whichterminates'adjacent the upper marginal edg'e l2 of the garment, and adevice I4 attached to the garmentl at the upper edge thereof andpositioned between the upper end of the rib and the body of the wearerof the garment to prevent the rib from pressing into the body.

The device I4, as shown in Figures 2, 3, and 4, comprises a relativelythin flat pad l5 of suitable shape and size to underlie the upper end ofthe rib, and a clip element IG secured to one face of the pad, forexample by stitching ll.

The pad l5 may be constructed in any suitable manner, for example, byenclosing a padding strip I9 (Figure 4) of soft or resilient material,su-ch as air-foam rubber, felt or the like, in an envelope or casing 20of fabric.

The clip element i6, as shown in Figures 2 and 3, is a thin, flat,somewhat elongate strip formed of sheet metal, plastic, or othermaterial which lends itself to simple and economical fabrication andwhich facilitates slight bending to enable the element to conform to thecurvature of the body of the wearer of the garment to which the deviceis attached.

The element comprises a pair of spaced apart hook-shaped portions 2leach adjacent one end of the element at the upper edge thereof andextending forwardly of the element with outwardly turned ends 23 tofacilitate disposi-tion on a garment, a plurality of teeth or serrations22 at the upper edge intermediate the hook-shaped portions, an elongateslit or aperture 24, and a row of teeth or serrations 25 defining theupper edge of the slit 24.

As shown in Figures 2 and 4, the slit 24 provides a bar portion 26 aboutwhich the stitching is applied to secure the element I 6 to the pad I5.Preferably, the element is positioned on the pad, so that the upperportion of the pad extends upwardly beyond the hook-shaped portions 2l.In this manner, when the device is supported on the upper or marginaledge l2 of the garment with the hooks straddling the rib H (Figure 1),the pad extends above the upper end of the rib between the garment andthe body of the wearer and prevents the rib from pressing into the body.Y .1

In order to prevent the device, when positioned as shown in Figures 1and 4, from creeping o r working its way upwardly and becoming detachedbecause of movement of the wearer, the teeth 22 and 25 are bent orextend forwardly out of the plane of the element, so that they bite intothe underside of the garment (Figure 4) to retain the hooks insupporting relation on the edge l2 of the garment. It is to be notedthat the out# wardly bent ends 23 of the hooks extend downwardly to apoint opposite the upper teeth 2 2. This done to provide an abutmentwhereby the cloth will be more readily engaged by the teeth 22 and thusfurther prevent dislocation of the pad from the garment; as it has been-found that, when the ends 23 terminate above theteeth 22, the hookstend to become dislodged from the garment. Y

While a single element 4I6 has been illustrated attached to thepad i5,it will be appreciated that a pair of such elements about half as longas the element shown and having a single hook could be utilized tothereby give the device greater flexibility for adjusting itself to thecurvature of the Wearers body. Y

From the foregoing description, i1; will be seen that the presentinvention provides a simple, practical, and inexpensive device forpreventing the ribs of garments from pressing into the body of thewearer. The devices are readily attached and removed but when assembledcannot be displaced accidentally. The attaching element is extremelysimple and practical in construction, can be made at a very low cost andis readily sewn to the pad. The device is sanitary since it adaptsitself to washing or dry cleaning without impairment of the partsthereof.

As various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangementof the parts herein, without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention and without sacrificing any of its advantages; it is tobefunderstpod that all matters are to be interpreted as illustrative andnot in any limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

A device for preventing the end of a rib in a garment from pressing intothe body of the wearer comprising a substantially thin at pad, andanelongate member secured to said pad on one side thereof .adapted to facethe underside of the garment, said element having a hook-shaped portionadjacent each end thereof for engaging a marginal edge of the Agarmenttosupport said pad thereon and having a serrated edge intermediate saidportionsl and extending outwardly fromsaid pad for engaging theunderside of the garment for preventing relative movement between saidp-ad and the garment, said lserrated edge being substantially inalignment with ends oi' said hooked shaped portions.

vieron MILSTEIN.

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